THERE may be some distance between Newcastle City Hall and the White House, but the threat of a Donald Trump presidency jolted Declan Clausen into joining the US election campaign.
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Cr Clausen, a Newcastle Labor councillor, joined the Hillary Clinton campaign last month in the face of resurgent polling by Republican nominee Mr Trump.
Mr Clausen and his partner Steven Moore have been door-knocking for Mrs Clinton in the city of Aurora, a 20-minute drive outside of Denver in the battleground state of Colorado.
The significance of who occupies the White House after Tuesday’s poll – the tense crescendo to an angry, divisive presidential race – has fuelled a fortnight of urgent campaigning on the ground.
“Because of the closeness of the race here, we’ve been visited by former President Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders, Congressman Jared Polis and [on Tuesday] former Vice President Al Gore,” Cr Clausen said.
“This is an absolutely critical election, and I have been encouraged by how many Coloradans are thinking globally when considering their vote. Fingers crossed, Hillary Clinton will be elected President tomorrow.”
Most polls give Mrs Clinton the edge in winning Colorado’s nine electoral college votes.
But Cr Clausen and other volunteers are racing to convince people to vote in the Colorado 6th Congressional District, one of the most marginal in the USA.
The district is historically a safe one for the GOP, but a redistribution and an increased Latino vote have Democrat Morgan Carroll suddenly in contention to unseat Republican Mike Coffman.
“I have spoken to literally thousands of likely Democratic voters across this district,” Cr Clausen said.
“It’s going to be an exceptionally close race and, while Colorado has postal voting available for all electors, we are expecting long queues at the polls. It has been a useful reminder of how fortunate we are to have compulsory voting and an independent electoral commission.”
As Americans went to bed on 2016 Election eve, the highly-influential poll analysis website FiveThirtyEight gave Mrs Clinton a 77.6 per cent chance of beating Mr Trump in Colorado.
Mrs Clinton’s overall chance of winning the presidency was rated at 70.9 per cent.
